Starting to move forward

And as the first day of 2013 ends, my thoughts turn to the plans for the rest of the year.

Three key races for the year are booked, VLM, TR24 and Snowdonia.  There will be other races slotted in around these where they can fit within the planned training without any serious impact and my NYE hangover was pretty much beaten out of me while running around the countryside with Steve Green (good friend, work colleague, sadly much more talented runner) with the planned easy 13 miles turning into a relatively fast effort wandering around the villages for 16 miles.  So I've gone off plan 100% of the my training days in 2013.  Dammit!  The damage doesn't feel too bad as the legs stretch out on the sofa now and frankly I've got used to being half-lost when following one of Steve's routes and I tend to add VAT (Garmin Connect Activity).  As the year progresses, Steve's name is likely to appear being a regular running partner during work breaks and he'll also be running VLM and Snowdonia (probably Shires and Spires too) but I'm unlikely to see him during the races unless there is a massive out-and-back.

And to compound the possible problems of those extra miles and that extra pace, we stood around chatting in the cold.  No stretching until the legs were already covered in goosebumps and food on the same timeline.  After the late morning jaunt, a second short run in the evening of a couple of kilometres with my actual partner who is coming back to running for fitness (Garmin Connect Activity).  Enough to warm the muscles sufficiently to stretch them a little more thoroughly.  And then come basic body weight exercises for the upper body as I'm increasingly aware that the recent increased focus on running has impinged heavily on any cross-training, particularly taekwondo and weights.  Frankly the upper-body-of-a-small-child look is not something to which I want to move too much closer.

So one day down.  Completely off the marathon training plan (I'll come back to the details of the plan another day) already.  Two runs though but unfortunately too early to be any use for Jantastic.

Blast!